I wonder why Germany seems to be the only country in the EU having trouble with this bail-out situation. It's sad to watch Angela Merkel in such a tough spot. She is such a great leader for Germany and has done great things for the country, yet she is at a majors crossroads in this Greece dilemma. Germany's position on this matter is a lot like the US's position in many foreign affairs. We are constantly responsible to bail out our foreign allies and sustain other economies. It is interesting to see how other countries react to sharing the burden.

"How a man who has never been authorised by the Financial Services Authority and has no discernible history working for a City institution ended up being interviewed by the BBC remains a mystery.

"They approached me," he told The Telegraph. "I'm an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking."

So he's more of a talker than a trader. A man who doesn't own the house he lives in, but can sum up the financial crisis in just three minutes – a knack that escapes many financial commentators.

"I agreed to go on because I'm attention seeker," he said on Tuesday. "But I meant every word I said."

The germans feel like they are not in a perfect enough situation to fund other European failing countries. THey feel if they get involved in failing economies, for example Greece, then they would eventually fall with it. Putting more taxes on the people to help a failing country. Greece has not made any significant moves to rebuild or figure out their economy to get their country back where it should be. The German nation would rebel against any fact for funding such an irresponsible act.

I understand German citizen's concern of Germany's plans on supporting and aiding the Greece in there time of dept. But they signed up for the EU which results in a little loss of sovereignty. Sometimes it goes to there advantage, sometimes it doesn't. Germany needs to bail Greece's debt. Keep in mind the Germany was bailed out both times after World War I and World War II. The country who supported them, UK and USA, did not like it but they did it anyway, now its Germany's turn to balance there conscious.

Merkel is losing power every day in Germany. As long as Germany continues to be the biggest power on the mainland of Europe, with the best economy, Merkel will lose power. Germany will be called upon by Italy, Greece, and the lot because they are the only power in the EU strong enough to assist, and the Germans don't want to help. The euro is failing because the EU is failing; everyone knows that. Europe is losing power and has started calling out to the new world powerhouses to look out for the little guys. (Didn't Italy just ask China to buy a bunch of bonds to support their piddly economy?)As long as the Germans view themselves as Germans more than Europeans, as they always will, the rest of Europe will fall underfoot. With the dying euro and struggling economies, most notably in Italy and Greece, there is no other future in sight.

The EU has a real problem on their hands. When some nations are financially sound and their currency is tied to nations that are not so sound, problems occur. If Germany does not vote to help the troubled nations of the EU, I wonder what will happen to the Euro. The Euro has done great things for Europe (Travel is easier, trade is easier, etc.), but it looks like it could also be its downfall. If I was Germany, I would vote to save the Euro, but I would want to place some safeguard in the way of another crisis like this happening again.

Merkel runs a coalition government, so a segment of her government doesn’t want to bail out Europe. So basically she has to choose between voting against it to stay in power, or vote for it and bail out Europe and lose her position. I think that she should choose to vote against the bailout of Europe. Germany is the powerhouse of Europe, but it is not their responsibility to bail out countries who do not know how to manage their finances properly. I understand the German's frustration with this situation, as they had nothing to do with these other European countries going broke and they are potentially going to be punished with higher taxes as a result. It just seems extremely unfair.

I have been thinking about this for the last couple of days. I still do not know how I would feel if I had to make this decision. On the one hand, Germany will go down with all of the E.U. if they do not help. On the other hand, Germany will go down with all of the E.U. if they do help. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Germany is at a crossroads that they seem be lost at. They can either move to continue to aid Greece or they can just look the other way. If they do not assist Greece, it will most likely default and all the other european countries will not get the money that Greece owes them. German citizens do not want to aid Greece because they will be the ones paying to bailout Greece. The German government has a problem because Greece is depending on Germany's help but the people of Germany do not want to help Greece. Germany will not be able to please both sides, so they need to make a decision.

The suffering of Europe's economy is definitely causing major trouble in Germany. I feel sorry for Angela Merkel. She is such a respected leader and she is put in the position to go against what she believes in and may have to go against the EU. I understand where the Schlaffer is coming from because I know that Germans are sick of having to pay for the rest of Europe's debt. It must be hard to be both the leader of Germany and a member of the EU right now. It would be hard to make any decisions without getting someone angry.

The suffering of Europe's economy is definitely causing major trouble in Germany. I feel sorry for Angela Merkel. She is such a respected leader and she is put in the position to go against what she believes in and may have to go against the EU. I understand where the Schlaffer is coming from because I know that Germans are sick of having to pay for the rest of Europe's debt. It must be hard to be both the leader of Germany and a member of the EU right now. It would be hard to make any decisions without getting someone angry.

Angela Merkel is in trouble. She is slowly losing power because Europe is doing bad, not because Germany is. She's a critical member of the EU and therefore when the rest of Europe falls, she does. She is hurting due to all of the european failures from the past couple of years.

I think Germany would be best if they didn't do a bailout and try to save Europe and Greece for their own sake. A bailout could destroy the German economy and supporting another country would be very tough. Greece will continue to ask for bailouts so its about time that they just had to default on their payments. It seems like the Euro will die, because countries can't support it anymore. If these parties want to win the election they should not use a bailout.

As mentioned in another Germany vs euro thread, we're very tired of this German arrogance and superiority complex.

Once and for all some of these people including most of their current political class should cut the demagoguery and face the
facts.

When they stereotype the southern Europeans as lazy and lacking fiscal discipline they're being deceitful at the very least by deliberately ignoring that their sovereign debt ratio is also quite high and is actually not that far from Portugal's before the global crisis and is actually higher than Spain's currently.

And if you compare the number of actual worked hours annually and throughout life, Germany lags behind Portugal and Spain.

And, by the way, it was not that long ago (2003-2005?) that the rules defined mostly by Germany's central bankers to regulate the finances of the Euro countries, had to be revised in order to prevent that the very country which imposed them (Germany) would be subject to EU intervention due to Germany's excessive deficit... and lets not forget, German deficit sky rocketed after the crisis also.

Tsk tsk.. those lazy and fiscally indiscipline Germans...

Luckily since early 2000's Germany and a few other countries sold out the southern European countries by opening EU borders to Chinese and Asian ultra-low cost products manufactured without concern for human rights, environment or fair practices.. only in order to obtain access to the China automotive market which has since kept Germany economy afloat.

Anyway like fools, they are ignorant or try to deceive themselves of which happy go lucky banks kept lending money to Greece for the past 10 years without any kind of serious risk assessment (yes mostly German banks) this is no different from the irresponsible and criminal behavior of the sub prime lenders in USA.

So, my dear arrogant Germans, despite your banks having offloaded a big portion of this debt ever since (thus aggravating the Greek yields and therefore the whole crisis) the truth is that Germany is still a close second only to France on its exposure to sovereign Greek debt.. so I ask you, do you know what that means in case of Greek default or are have you been blinded by your nonsensical pride?

Actually it's kind of ironic, that German banks (many sate owned) were so quick and generous (aka irresponsible, undisciplined) lending money to Greece through the good times, and now during the bad times they complain they have to lend money to Greece at even higher rates, indeed ironic. This says a lot about the German mindset.

By the way, please remember that Germany lends less than 20% of the total share of the loans, the remaining 80% comes from all other EU (including Portugal, Spain, Ireland, UK) plus IMF.. also the per capita contribution is not so different between countries.

Furthermore when some people talk about Germany bearing the costs of the bailout, they are so intellectually challenged that they do not even realize that they are in fact lending money at speculative rates (only recently lowered below loan shark range), meaning Germany is reaping a huge profit from this operation!

Finally, it is depressing the fact that Germany has, like a vulture, so far (but not for much longer) been profiting immensely from the misery imposed by speculators on periphery countries.

Namely not only through the interest collected on those speculative loans to Portugal, Ireland and Greece but also benefiting from the Euro devaluation which is vital for an economy fully reliant on exports such as Germany.

Had Germans now their beloved Deutschmark, their currency would be be extremely overvalued thus annihilating the competitiveness of German exports.

It's unfortunate that Germany finds themselves in this predicament. To have to decide between protecting their country or the EU is not an easy choice and shouldn't be taken lightly. I think the German's decision will tell a great deal about the strength of the EU in terms of how connected and close the Europeans feel.

The EU is at an all-time low, with Germany having to bail out many members. The richest country in the EU at the moment, Germany is also struggling. Angela Merkel’s FDP party is struggling to gain the majority vote, and the decision on the Euro has ramifications not only for the FDP, but also for the EU as a whole.
Frank Schaffler’s resistance to Germany’s plan creates serious political opposition. His resistance is giving rise to turmoil within Germany and overall EU unity, which is currently at an all-time low.

The EU is at an all-time low, with Germany having to bail out many members. The richest country in the EU at the moment, Germany is also struggling. Angela Merkel’s FDP party is struggling to gain the majority vote, and the decision on the Euro has ramifications not only for the FDP, but also for the EU as a whole.
Frank Schaffler’s resistance to Germany’s plan creates serious political opposition. His resistance is giving rise to turmoil within Germany and overall EU unity, which is currently at an all-time low.

"I'm fed up with working hard so the Greeks can sit in cafes and drink coffee with brandy all day," grumbles Uli, who hawks traditional beer steins to business-minded Frankfurt's rare tourists. "We're slaving while Greece parties," agrees Jens, a sausage vendor whose stand proclaims his product as "the best Wurst in town." He advocates letting the euro — and even the European Union — dissolve like fat on a griddle."

Note that Germany per se is bust. Germany has no capacy to keep bailing out other countries. Germany needs to bailout her per se. To do that, Germany needs to print marks again. Otherwise Germany cannot payback her sovereign debts which exceed over 80% of her GDP. To do that, Germany has to exit Euro! There is no future for Euro. Euro was a mistake!